If that is the strategy, then it is working. There is a developing consensus among the political elites of both parties that we need to leave sooner rather than the 2014 target date.
I should note that our combat troops were out of Vietnam in November 1972 with just 16,000 military advisers remaining. On March 29, 1973 all remaining troops were withdrawn leaving just a few military personnel protecting our diplomatic facilities. On April 30, 1975 - At 8:35 a.m., the last Americans, ten Marines from the embassy, depart Saigon, concluding the United States presence in Vietnam.
The famous picture of US personnel being evacuated from our Embassy's roof in Saigon created the false impression that our military was being routed and escaping in panic. The reality is that we had an orderly departure two years prior to the fall of Saigon and the South Vietnamese fought valiantly for two more years until Congress cut off aid and the NVA violated the Paris Peace Acords and invaded the South in mass numbers. Most of the people evacuated from the Embassy roof top during the last days of Saigon were South Vietnamese who had worked with and for us.
The famous picture of US personnel being evacuated from our Embassy's roof in Saigon created the false impression that our military was being routed and escaping in panic.
That is correct. Unfortunately, that iconic picture and deceptive meme is what most of the world now accepts as truth. I am truly concerned that when one or more of the many world pressure-points finally lets go later this year that our people in AfPak will be forced to undertake some sort of modern equivalent to Xenophon's Anabasis.